The Karnataka drugs control department has swung into action to ensure that there is no shortage of anti-viral medicine oseltamivir phospate (Tamilflu) to treat the H1N1 condition.

However, the department has not received the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI)'s order calling all the state drug controllers to ensure that oseltamivir is made available to patients and keep a close watch on realistic purchases of this drug via prescriptions. Moreover, it has not received any order to issue Schedule X restrictive licences to the druggists and chemists.

The department has identified 66 druggists and chemists in Bengaluru stocking the drug and the details are put up on its website. It has also formed a team of officials to map out the drug stocks at the pharmacy outlets across the state.

“There is no shortage of the oseltamivir tablets in Karnataka and particularly Bengaluru”, Karnataka drugs controller Raghurama Bhandary told Pharmabiz.

“We have embarked on this exercise to inform pharmacy distributors to maintain adequate stocks and identify the outlets. Therefore, there are adequate stocks of the medicine anywhere between 1,000-2,000 quantities at all the taluk and district level hospitals in the 30 districts of the state. This information is also intimated to the National Health Mission,” he adds.

As of now there is no shortage of vaccines because efforts to offset the shortfall have been implemented. Therefore, in terms of availability of drugs, the state is well prepared with adequate stocks, said the Karnataka drugs controller.

“There was senior official from the Union ministry to our office to ascertain the status of the drug availability and we have apprised him of our efforts to ensure that there is no shortfall,” he says.

According to the data gather from the Union ministry of health, Karnataka reported 349 cases with 24 deaths. The condition begins with running nose and cough leading to a life-threatening respiratory congestion.

Swine flu emerged as an epidemic in 2009. Its outbreak was attributed to a new strain of the subtype H1N1 of the Type A influenza virus. The lone drug Tamiflu which if administered timely to save lives was invented by Gilead Sciences and licensed to Roche in 1996. The two global pharma majors partnered on its clinical development. The Swiss-based Roche manufactured and worked to register the drug in many markets.

The pharma companies in India which manufacture the generic version of Tamiflu are Ranbaxy, Hetero Drugs, Natco Pharma, Cipla and Strides Arcolab. Natco is selling Natflu which is the generic version of oseltamivir (Tamiflu), Cipla drug is referred to as Antiflu and zanamivir, Hetero Healthcare  is Fluvir and  Strides Arcolab’s Tamiflu generic is ‘Starflu’.